In 1992, ACM SIGMOD started the Annual SIGMOD Innovations Award and SIGMOD Contributions Award as part of its Awards Program. In 1999, a test-of-time award was introduced to honor a paper from ten years prior. In 2004, SIGMOD, with the unanimous approval of ACM Council, renamed the Innovations Award in honor of Dr. Edgar F. (Ted) Codd (1923 – 2003), who invented the relational data model that led to the significant development of the database field as a scientific discipline. In 2015, the System award was devised to recognize impactful systems (as opposed to papers). Finally, in 2025, ACM SIGMOD announced a new mentorship award, which was named after Hector Garcia-Molina. More details about each award are below.
The recipients will receive the awards at the annual ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference in all cases. If the award is shared among multiple recipients, each will receive a plaque (up to 10 plaques per award), but the monetary prize will be shared.
Nominations are open all year. SIGMOD accepts award nominations on a continuous basis, with an annual cut-off date of February 1. See the Ongoing Call for SIGMOD Award Nominations for what to submit and how. (The 2026 call for nominations is kept for reference.) Click on the links below to navigate to a specific award, its committee (if applicable), and its recipients.
SIG-level awards
- SIGMOD Contributions Award
- SIGMOD Hector Garcia-Molina Distinguished Mentorship Award
- SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award
- SIGMOD Jim Gray Doctoral Dissertation Award
- SIGMOD Systems Award
- SIGMOD Test of Time Award
Conference-level awards
- SIGMOD Best Paper Award
- SIGMOD Best Demonstration Award
- SIGMOD Best Artifact Award
- SIGMOD Distinguished AEs and PCs
